Ep 728 - God, Women and World Peace Part 12
God, Women and World Peace - October 23, 2022
PDF Printable Text and Images + Testimony Dr. Thomas Ward
Key Points
We can receive spiritual salvation through faith in Jesus, but without physical salvation our bodies continue to be tempted by evil and we can never pass the top of the growth stage into the completion stage.
In the Completed Testament age True Parents have opened the path for both spiritual and physical salvation conditionally through the Blessing, depending on whether or not we fulfill our portion of responsibility.
Satan, who is multiple unseen evil spirits in the spiritual world, often seduces us with attractive words and deeds to make us fall.
Satan dominates our spirit, transcending time and space, and even follows us and rules over us in the spiritual world.
In teaching Chapter One, we need to present very clearly the reality of God, God existence, the spiritual world, the purpose of life and God’s relationship with us. In Chapter Two we need to teach very clearly the reality of Satan: he really does exist and always takes action.
The reason people sin is that they are under the control of the spiritual Satan, who is invisible behind them.
Therefore, the opponent we have to fight against is the Satan behind that person, rather than the person.
Fallen human beings hate people who do evil more than they hate Satan, who is the subject of evil, but we need to forgive sinners and hate the evil spirit behind them.
The invisible Satan enters only when there are conditions. Therefore, we must avoid creating such conditions.
Satan’s identity and main weapon is sexual immorality.
An adulterer serves two masters, speaks two different words with one tongue and changes according to the circumstances.
True Parents' words centered on the Principle must be the eternal, unchanging standard.
If in our life of faith we are more concerned about the public will than anyone else, Heaven will give us revelations or teach us through dreams.
In the Completed Testament Age the way God and the spirit world guide us believers is first through a dream, and secondly, through realizations when we hear, read, and practice the Word.
If our vertical relationship with God is solid, as is our horizontal relationship with the people closest to us, if we accept our work as God’s will and appreciate the creation as God’s belongings, then God will guide us, we will know what to do, and we will see God’s vision for us in advance.
Only sincere jeongseong and unity among brothers and sisters will resolve the current Japanese persecution of our movement, not some external solution alone.
Transcripts from November 3, 2021 to the present, personal notes from November 11, 2020 until November 2, 2021 and slides from August 29, 2021 to the present are available at MD.Hoondok.com as PDF files.♦
Today is beautiful Sunday.
Yesterday, we had a Divine Principle workshop at the New Jersey KEA with 31 participants including 8 guests. Noah Ross gave beautiful Divine Principle lectures.
I want to make our Noah Ross busy because we are bringing many new guests! This was a really beautiful seminar! Thank you, Noah Ross, for your incredible dedication and support in raising up our young people, those who have newly joined our church.
President Naokimi and I also gave remarks for them.
Also, we had a Spanish Divine Principle workshop at the Queens Church yesterday. Twelve new guests attended the workshop, and three couples received Holy Wine. They will also participate in the Blessing ceremony on October 30th at the Clifton Church.
Many things are going on in the Clifton church right now. I really appreciate many ethnic group leaders who are supporting and uniting with each other, especially the Spanish, Philippino, African and Japanese communities. They are really working very hard to have new members.
We took a group photo.
Today I’d like to talk about “God, Women and World Peace” from True Mother’s Anthology, Book 2.
<This was an invitational address delivered on September 7, 1993 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York> However, this glorious destiny could not be realized. It was the religious people themselves who rejected Jesus' words and called for his crucifixion. Confronted by the disbelief in Israel, Jesus determined to give his life to achieve spiritual salvation for humankind. However, he knew that Christ would have to come again in order to bring physical salvation on earth in addition to spiritual salvation. As a result of Jesus' death on the cross, the conflict between supporters of left-wing and right-wing ideologies appeared, echoing the two thieves who were crucified with him. This is similar to the separation between Cain and Abel that resulted from Adam's Fall. Likewise, Islam and Christianity appeared and began struggling. Because such separation was caused by the crucifixion of Jesus, Christ will work for the unity of these divisions at the time of the Second Coming.
God's preparation for the Second Advent required a world-level foundation of successful Cain-Abel reconciliation. This dispensation was carried out through the events surrounding World War II. The Allied countries of Britain, the United States and France represented Christianity and were in the position of Abel. The Axis countries of Germany, Japan and Italy practiced nationalistic militarism and stood in the position of Cain. This war represented the expansion of the conflict between Cain and Abel to the world level. Immediately after the Allied victory, great strides were made toward creating a world of peace, guided by Christianity. With Britain in the position of Eve on the world level, and the United States and France representing Abel and Cain respectively, the Allied nations stood united in the position ready to receive the Lord of the Second Advent.
We can receive spiritual salvation through faith in Jesus, and our hearts can draw closer to him, but because we have not yet been saved physically, our bodies continue to be tempted by evil as you know.
The Apostle Paul was also troubled by the conflict between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the heart. Many great Christian witnessers also suffered from this contradiction. The limit of spiritual salvation is that you will never pass the top of the growth stage. You cannot enter the completion stage.
However, with the opening of the Completed Testament age centered on True Parents, a path was opened for both spiritual and physical salvation to be achieved at the same time. That is the Blessing.
Then the question is whether we will receive the Blessing and not feel anguish and pain both physically and spiritually like the Apostle Paul. Through True Parents, we received the Blessing which meant conditionally receiving salvation both physically and spiritually.
Therefore, from now on, receiving substantial spiritual and physical salvation will depend on whether or not you fulfill your portion of responsibility. Salvation in body and spirit begins with the Blessing, and it goes beyond the top level of the growth stage and begins at the formation level of the completion stage. Now, the way has been fully opened to obtain and complete your spiritual and physical salvation.
LIVING DIVINE PRINCIPLE: The Fall - 5. The Identity of the Serpent
• In the Bible we read that a serpent tempted Eve to commit sin (Gen. 3:4-5)
1.This serpent was able to converse with people.
2. It caused the Fall of humans, who are spiritual beings.
3. Furthermore, the serpent knew the Will of God, which strictly forbade human beings to eat the fruit.
4. As it is written in Revelation 12:9, "The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth," the serpent had lived in heaven.
5. Also, it is able to transcend time and space to dominate the human soul.
The serpent had lived in heaven: the unseen Satan is (multiple) evil spirits in the spiritual world. They often show up and seduce with attractive words and deeds to make people fall.
The serpent dominates the human soul nowadays: Satan dominates my spirit transcending time and space, and he even follows and rules over me in the spiritual world.
That’s why we need to clearly teach and understand the existence of Satan.
Whenever we give lectures centering on Chapter One, we need to teach very clearly the reality of God, God existence, the spiritual world, and the purpose of life. Especially we need to teach very clearly God’s existence and the relationship between God and me. This is centering on Chapter One, right?
In Chapter Two we need to teach very clearly the reality of Satan. Many people do not know about that. How can we know the reality of Satan? 6.
How can we let our young people know the existence of Satan? Until now he has been hiding. Satan behind (us) is the one who really dominates our spirit, transcending time and space. He even follows and rules over us in the spiritual world everywhere. How do we let people know the reality of Satan?
• This is compelling evidence that the being which the serpent symbolizes was a spiritual being.
• This spiritual being was originally created with a good purpose, but later fell and became Satan.
• There are no beings endowed with such characteristics other than angels. Therefore, the serpent which tempted human beings and sinned is an angel.
• Also, in Il Pet. 2:4, it is written "God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom."
Evil is to be shown through unseen Satan much more than through humankind, that’s why we should not give any chance to Satan (to invade). Satan does indeed exist.
The reason people sin is that they are under the control of the spiritual Satan, who is invisible behind them. Therefore, the opponent we have to fight against is the Satan behind that person rather than the person who causes us to sin.
Therefore, there should be no conditions for Satan to invade. However, fallen human beings hate people who do evil more than they hate Satan, who is the subject of evil. The fundamental measure to defeat evil is to fight the invisible Satan.
If we know this, we will forgive sinners and we will hate the evil spirit behind them, the spiritual Satan. Spiritual Satan must use human flesh all the time. Therefore, we must show mercy and forgive those who are used and lend their bodies to the unseen Satan.
Actually the unseen Satan is a reality. (He is) substantial. How can we fight with the unseen Satan?
In the end, the battle between good and evil is a spiritual battle with the invisible Satan behind it. However, the invisible Satan enters only when there are conditions that must be met. Therefore, we must not present any conditions for the invisible Satan to enter. Many people are used (by) the invisible spiritual Satan. We have to win the battle against the spiritual Satan that comes invisibly rather than the external evil that comes through people.
If someone really opposes you, persecutes you and does all kinds of evil things to you, you are not just dealing with that guy. You have to know who is behind him: evil, spiritual Satan. You need to deal with that kind of spiritual Satan, rather than that guy. Satan is misusing that guy’s body, his mouth. When we know who is the actual spiritual Satan, then we can forgive that person because Satan is misusing him. That is why we need to settle who is behind him, unseen spiritual Satan. If you do not know how to deal with evil Satan, the unseen evil spirit, and you only deal with your own brothers and sisters – “Why is this guy doing evil action to me, persecuting me and misunderstanding me?” and becoming my enemy. Don’t do that. You need to know (who) is behind him. Spiritual, unseen Satan is there. If we really understand that, we can forgive that person because he is just misused by the evil spirit. Don’t make any evil conditions for Satan to invade you.
Especially sexual promiscuity. Satan’s main weapon is sexual immorality. The identity of Satan is sexual immorality. We need to know this point.
Let’s study Father’s word.
Do not Become Someone With Two Tongues
<2-44> Today, you have to say the remarks which Jesus likes. You should not say two different words even though you’ve inherited the lineage of the Serpent(snake) with two tongues. You should be able to become the representative by listening to the words of God’s side, seeing God’s internal form and recognize it without flaw. In other words, like the one who has only one tongue, not two tongues before all mankind. Likewise God has been seeking for one righteous person who can substitute your tongue for the tongue of Jesus.
God’s Words Must Be the Eternal Standard
<2-328> There are a lot of people who have lost their central point. There are only words centering on individual thoughts by a certain belief or system. But a group of people taking their risks with an unchanging attitude toward God’s words and having God’s words as their eternal standard are decreasing more and more. The phenomenon that there is an increasing number of people who are saying the words centering on themselves just like Satan. It was said that the being who seduced Adam and Eve is the Serpent (snake). The Serpent stands for the one who has two tongues, which means the one who says two different words with one tongue.
An adulterer is one who has two hearts. Someone with two hearts means someone who serves two masters. An adulterous person is a person who speaks two different words with one tongue.
Therefore, fallen man must take God's Word as his eternal standard. True Parents' words centered on the Principle must be the eternal standard.
However, the sad thing is that the unchanging attitude toward God's word that is set as the eternal standard is gradually disappearing. God's word is eternal, unchanging, absolute, and unique, so we must be able to risk our lives to fight at times.
On the other hand, Satan changes according to circumstances. Satan speaks two words with one tongue all the time.
TODAY’S YOUTH MINISTRY: The Spirit World Gives Specific Teachings
The Spirit World Gives Specific Teachings (1)
1. Before True Parents’ providence began, the spirit world taught the prepared people very specifically about the Second Coming. The following is a part of Rev. Yo Han Lee’s testimony: “During the Korean War, when I was in a situation where I didn’t know what to do, I received teachings through dreams. I was taught in detail, such as ‘Do it like this,’ ‘Go to this place,’ etc., and sometimes, I was clearly shown the house which I should stay at. Also, when I was heading for Seoul, the spirit world said, ‘Do not go there. Just because the national army captured the city and called people to come, do not rejoice or shout mansei. Do not cheer but just stay hidden.’ So, I did not go out, but stayed hidden. At that time, it was the world of the national army by day, but by night, it was the world of the North Korean communist army. The North Korean communist army hid in the mountains, and at night, they made a surprise attack. People who shouted mansei and cheered during the day over the fact that the national army arrived were all captured by the North Korean army and shot dead. The North Korean communist army watched the people clapping for the national army from the mountains and thoroughly searched for them.
The Spirit World Gives Specific Teachings (2)
2. “When I was in Tokyo, Japan, Korea was liberated from Japan. Then, Heaven told me, ‘Do not go out into the street and cheer that you were liberated.’ At that time, many Koreans would go out into the streets and shout mansei for becoming independent. However, at night, those who celebrated were attacked by the Japanese. The Japanese were upset after being defeated in the war, so they killed everyone celebrating Japan’s surrender. That is why Heaven directed me, ‘Do not rejoice. You do not rejoice in front of people who are upset.’ And since I returned to Korea and wept out of pity for Christianity and prayed for them, Heaven told me, ‘The Lord will come to Korea. Do not worry. It is not the time to worry that Christian churches have fallen. Now, timewise, the providence centered on Christianity has ended.’ I was taught in this way, so while I was waiting quietly, someone that met Teacher Sun Myung Moon in Pyongyang, North Korea came to my house.
The Spirit World Gives Specific Teachings (3)
3. This person who came to me had gone from house to house, asking the spirit world each day, ‘Is it this house or that house?’ and then they came to me. They were pulled by the spirit world to meet me. That lady was about 30 or 32 years old. As soon as she saw me, she immediately asked, ‘When you wept and prayed over the reality of Christian churches, Heaven gave you a revelation that the Lord was coming. Is that true?’ so I was truly surprised. So I replied, ‘Yes, that is true,’ and she said, ‘The Lord is coming to Korea. Just wait a little. If you get too frustrated with reality, you will lose your heart. Be still and silent in hope, and you will be taught again.’ After saying this, she left.” This was Rev. Yo Han Lee’s testimony about being guided by the spirit world until he met the Second Coming.
If You Have Attachment, Passion, and Sincere Devotion for the Will…
4. In Korea, before the providence of the Second Coming officially began, many revelations from Heaven were given to the people who were prepared to meet the Second Coming. However, the problem was that those prepared for the Second Coming should have asked, “What should we do?” and dug a little deeper by trying to pray more while reading the Bible, but they were just looking centered on the words of the Bible. If they heard, “The Second Coming will come,” they just thought he would eventually come and just passed time without any interest. If he were coming, they should have prayed while digging deeper centered on the Bible about how and when he would come, but they were unaware about the providence and let time and revelations pass by.
5. The reason we talk about things of the past is because if we have attachment, passion, and sincere devotion for the Will, God and the spirit world will tell us in advance. Therefore, if you become one with God, you will be able to know all about God’s specific vision for yourself. God lets us know in advance. In this way, the teacher guides us, parents guide us, and the spirit world takes charge of each person and guides them and cares for them. If you see that they are all concerned and tell us in advance, you will realize the unmistakable truth that I am not only myself but we are all beings that belong somewhere. I am not myself.
People usually do not go deeper when they have a dream or a revelation from God and easily deal with them superficially. If we are more concerned about the public will in our life of faith than anyone else, Heaven will give us revelations or teach us through dreams.
Once you have a dream, you need to dig deep into what the dream means. Since this is the Completed Testament Age, not the Old Testament or the New Testament age, the way God and the spirit world guide us believers is first through a dream, and secondly, through realizations when we hear, read, and practice the Word.
As in the past, it is rare for the Holy Spirit's work to appear directly or for any spiritual phenomenon to appear. That is because the present age is a spiritually mature age.
Now we are already entering the Age of Completion.
If we have attachment, passion, and sincere devotion for the Will, God and the spirit world will tell us things in advance. Therefore, when you become one with God, He will teach you His vision for you and what to do in detail.
The way that God comes to you is not only through dreams or through spiritual phenomena. Sometimes He gives you answers through your parents, your teacher, your Abel, and the person closest to you, and other times through reading or listening to the Word.
Therefore, there are so many channels through which Heaven gives you answers, so you have to cherish every relationship very well. If your faith is clear vertically and your human relationships are good horizontally, you love all things, and are sincere in the work given to you, God will surely guide your path.
That’s why there are many channels, not just through prayer or jeongseong and dreams. God intervenes through many channels. One of the main channels God communicates with me is through the closest person. When you do not have the proper relationship with the closest person, you do not know God’s teaching and guidance. If your faith is very clear vertically and you have a real conviction and confirmation of your relationship with God, God surely will guide you. That is vertical.
Secondly, horizontal. If your human relationships are very good with your parents, your brothers and sisters, your Abel, your siblings and younger brothers and sisters and if you are loving all things very well, and if whatever you do you are very sincere with the work given to you, I am telling you guaranteed, God will surely guide your path.
In the past (people) just relied on the spiritual world: “Holy Spirit, come down!” Now we are entering the Completion Stage. Now, as long as your vertical relationship is very clear with Heavenly Parent – “Heavenly God, you are my father, my parent; I am your child” – you have this kind of conviction with no doubt at all, this kind of closeness with God, and secondly horizontally (as long as) you respect and love people as you do God, and thirdly, whatever your work, (as long as) you feel (that) this is God’s will – it doesn’t matter if you are a full-time member or home member working at home – (that) this job is given by Heavenly Parent, and one more thing, (as long as) you deal with all things – you look at the mountains and ocean and materials and deal with the television and computer or whatever – as God’s belongings, (then) with your sincerity, I am telling you, God will surely guide your path, you will know what to do, and you will see the vision in advance.
True Parents teach us in such detail. Other churches (simply tell us to) believe in God and Jesus and pray. They emphasize the importance of prayer which is, of course, important.
(For us it is) not only that. Substantially horizontally how do you give-and-take with your brothers and sisters, your closest people? That is the Foundation of Substance. Also, love all things.
I really appreciate True Parents’ detailed teaching: How to meet God and how to communicate with him heartistically. This is beautiful guidance. Who can teach this in such detail? Let’s appreciate our True Parents.
(Testimony Dr. Thomas Ward, Recent Experiences as a Unificationist in the Academic World, UTS Provost)♦
(Response to sharing) We need to think that everything is God’s will. When I joined the Korean army for three years of duty, I thought that (I am doing this because) this is God’s will, not because this was my duty to the Korean nation as a Korean. (It was because of) loving the nation and loving God. We need to always think that way.
(Response to second sharing) Today you mentioned a very important and main point, especially about the Japanese issue of national-level persecution, including the government and Christianity. But when we only deal with this as external phenomena – Why is the Japanese government like that? Why is the Japanese Christian church is like that? Why is all media communism(?) like that? – we cannot deal (effectively) with (it). You need to know the spiritual Satan behind it. In order to overcome the spiritual Satan, the important thing is to have a lot of jeongseong and create unity among our brothers and sisters. If there is incredible jeongseong and unity and alignment with God and True Parents, then this is the weapon to overcome invisible Satan. This is the point. You need to settle this invisible, spiritual side first; then you need to deal with the external way. But people (who) don’t care about the spiritual side and just deal with it externally, cannot solve the problem. We need to know that the power of jeongseong is very important in order to kill Satan. We need to know the importance of jeongseong and unity and invest our heart.♦
NOTE: This text and the PowerPoint slides from this speech are available as a link at the top of this text. Transcripts from November 3, 2021 to the present, personal notes from November 11, 2020 until November 2, 2021 and slides from August 29, 2021 to the present are available at MD.Hoondok.com as PDF files. Books of the transcripts and notes are available as PDFs at MDBooks.Hoondok.com.
This lightly edited transcript may contain errors and omissions. Indecipherable, inaudible or uncertain words and guesses are tagged with a “(?)” and indecipherable phrases, with an ellipsis “...”. First, second and third person pronouns have been left as spoken if the meaning is clear, and other apparently Korean English expressions have been preserved if understandable. Some repeated phrases have been eliminated.
Audio only is available at anchor.morndev.com, spotify.morndev.com & audio.morndev.com. Notes or transcripts of Dr. Yong’s Morning Devotion speeches from November 11, 2020 through March 29, 2022 are available as six paperback books at cost at Lulu.com/Shop -- search for Dr. Chung Sik Yong -- and as PDF downloads free of charge at MDBooks.Hoondok.com.♦